Jean Adukwei Mensa
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission
(EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, yesterday stated categorically that she did not lobby
for the position during a working visit to the offices of DAILY GUIDE.
She said she never ‘dreamt about’ the position,
let alone ‘lobby’ for it during an interesting and revealing interview she
granted editors of the newspaper.
“I never
knocked on any door,” she said with an infectious smile and confidence, adding “the
door rather came to look for me.”
“I am taking my assignment as the EC
Chairperson devoid of stress,” she said to an answer as to whether she is on a
hot seat.
“It is not a hot seat. I am not feeling any
heat. Do I look stressed? I do not go to bed thinking about it,” she said.
She recalled going to church one day and as she
danced someone asked why she went for such a tough assignment and she replied
that there was no such pressure on her.
“Do I look stressed?’ she asked again. Sometimes
people see me and wonder how I am feeling being EC Chairperson,” she said.
With a smile, she denied being a relative of
the President.
“Perhaps because I share the prettiness of Mrs.
Rebecca Akufo-Addo they think I am related to her. There is no relationship
whatsoever as being alleged,” she revealed.
In her opinion, the headship of the EC, she
said, is not a job one should even lobby for.
The EC, under her leadership, is being run
openly devoid of secrecy, hence the visit to close to 10 media organizations she
and her team plan visiting soon.
“We shall meet various stakeholders, some of
them clergy persons from the various faiths, traditional rulers so we can discuss
with them the way forward,” she said.
When asked about her reaction to suggestion by
former President John Mahama that her ‘posture’ doesn’t give confidence that
she would be ‘neutral’ in 2020, she replied that “The EC is not a secret
organization. We are running an open door policy. We shall call on former
President John Mahama as part of our outreach programme to stakeholders,” she
said.
The Constitution of the country, she went on,
is the light of the commission as it discharges its mandate to the people of
Ghana.
Touching on her demeanour, which some NDC
members say is ‘unfriendly,’ she said, “I smile to politicians who come for
IPAC meetings because they are all friends I have known for long. I have
interacted with all of them during my Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) days.”
The EC, she said, is on the verge of altering
the face of the ICT department, which in its current state leaves much to be
desired.
Describing the department as a key component of
the work of the commission, she added that a Canadian consultant was engaged to
assist in addressing the challenges confronting it.
He’s a person conversant with the EC, having
worked with the commission in previous times.
“What we inherited is an EC where the ICT department
is not entrenched in the electoral process,” she said.
The EC under her leadership is embarking upon a
programme that would return the ICT department to Ghanaians in contrast to the
status quo where the process and the accompanying infrastructure are not owned
by the commission but by a vendor.
This situation, she said, is dangerous for the
country and should be reversed in the interest of Ghana’s sovereignty.
“We believe that we can run our own system and not vendors. We want to move away from this system,”
she said.
Continuing, she said “when we came we
discovered that an amount of $56 million was required to refurbish the data
centre towards the referendum and the district level elections.
“We decided to undertake an audit of the system
and it came to light that our staff did not even control the password; this
detail was lodged with STL who controlled it.”
She said the IT manager and the other staff in
the department had no clue about what was happening, adding “we do not think
that as a commission we should allow the status quo to continue.”
She was accompanied by top EC officials such as Dr. Bossman Asare, Samuel Tettey, Sylvia Annor and Lawrence Sarpong.
By A.R. Gomda
The post I Didn’t Lobby For EC Job appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
